Removing the Seat from a 2009 ZX-6R

Warning

I am not a mechanic or a representative of Kawasaki or anything else official. This page is only my notes on doing this procedure myself. Although I believe what I have documented here is correct, I make no promises and you do this at your own risk.

Objective

You need to remove the main seat for most maintenance tasks. The rear seat comes off with your ignition key, but the main seat needs a tool.

Required

Tools Required

Rear stand (optional but recommended)

4mm Hex Wrench (Allen Key)

Difficulties & Warnings

Easy.

Procedure

Most bike maintenance is easier if you support the bike on a swing-arm stand so it is held vertical. This is optional, but a good investment if you plan to do any kind of work on the bike.

There is a plastic cover just under the gas tank, imprinted with a “carbon fibre” hatched appearance – shown circled in magenta here – that must be removed. Locate the recessed screw at the front of this cover. The location is shown circled in red here.

Remove the retaining screw. Mine uses a 4mm hex wrench.

Get your fingers under the plastic cover and tug it away from the bike. You are pulling a plastic spike out of a rubber grommet at the front, and pulling apart two pieces of Velcro toward the rear. There is also a small plastic flange at the reat that is fitted into a hole – you’ll see this as the cover comes free.

I keep a small plastic parts box with divided sections handy and I put removed screws and other fasteners in their own sections, in order, as I take things off. This increases my chances of remembering how to put it back together.

Here the cover is free of the plug, velcro, and flange, and is being lifted away.

Put it somewhere safe where it won’t get scratched.

Now look under the seat, behind where the cover was, for a seat retaining screw. It’s shown circled in red here.

Remove the seat retaining screw. Mine uses a 4mm hex wrench.

Repeat this procedure on the other side of the bike: remove the cover screw, the cover, and the seat retaining screw.

Now the main seat can be lifted out of the bike.

Here is the bike with both seats removed, showing the under-seat wiring closet. This gives access to the battery, the fuse box, connectors for most of the lighting, and some room for accessories.